Sauscutapalooza AWSS6 The Payoff

caliking

Foghorn said

And the fat off of a Mangalitsa mix pig is like butter.

Also, @caliking and @texaswig, as both of you were fans of the ProQ aka "trashcan smoker", I regret to inform you that it gave everything it had to provide us with breakfast bacon, a place to cook samples of our ground sausage for tastetesting before we put it in the casings, elk, bear, and award winning chicken wings throughout the weekend.  As @20stone likes to say "it was amortized".  The fire broke through the bottom of it on its last cook.  

NNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!  Say it ain’t so. RIP trash can cooker. You were loved by many. 

But it proved that the gloating  about the wings finally proved to be too much even for it.  

Foghorn

FarmingPhD said:

Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories, this looks like a lot of fun.  You leave worn out but feeling accomplished.  The facility looks awesome along with the location.  Maybe add a hog hunt to the mix for wild boar sausage on the next round?

There are no boars at this particular ranch. However, one of my colleagues who participated this weekend has a bunch of them at his deer lease and has provided me some small whole pigs for cooks in the past. So, we have a potential source for some wild pig. 

In keeping with the AWSS theme, we might want to do a weekend with just venison and wild boar as the meat sources - and pig fat. 

Foghorn

caliking said:

Foghorn said

And the fat off of a Mangalitsa mix pig is like butter.

Also, @caliking and @texaswig, as both of you were fans of the ProQ aka "trashcan smoker", I regret to inform you that it gave everything it had to provide us with breakfast bacon, a place to cook samples of our ground sausage for tastetesting before we put it in the casings, elk, bear, and award winning chicken wings throughout the weekend.  As @20stone likes to say "it was amortized".  The fire broke through the bottom of it on its last cook.  

NNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!  Say it ain’t so. RIP trash can cooker. You were loved by many. 

But it proved that the gloating  about the wings finally proved to be too much even for it.  

The worst thing is that I need a replacement by tomorrow. It was made in England and that version is no longer imported to the US. Napoleon grills make them here in the US now but they are very poorly made. I bought one for my son. Parts of it fell apart on the first cook. 

I may just buy a Weber Smokey Joe.  

dbCooper

Thanks to all the participants for sharing the stories and pictures of the adventure, great read!

Somehow seems like there should also be a hound dog involved in this.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

FarmingPhD said:

Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories, this looks like a lot of fun.  You leave worn out but feeling accomplished.  The facility looks awesome along with the location.  Maybe add a hog hunt to the mix for wild boar sausage on the next round?

Hogs and Axis deer were on the agenda but the animals get a vote too and decided to stay hidden this weekend. They had 3 whitetails in the walk in when we got there that we were counting on but the cooler had been at 44 degrees for over a week. No Bueno. We called an audible and bought 50lbs of sirloin tip at a local meat market/processor and made the Merguez out of beef instead of venison. Turned out really nice.

nolaegghead

I helped my local homebrew club make 600 pounds of sausage.  We had around 20 people working and some serious gear, but it still took a village.

nolaegghead

I used my engine hoist the other day and noticed it still had a patina of goat fat.  @20stone

20stone

nolaegghead said:

I helped my local homebrew club make 600 pounds of sausage.  We had around 20 people working and some serious gear, but it still took a village.

There were six people listed on the agenda, but not all pulled a full shift.  @FogJr jumped in and saved the day.  Otherwise, we'd still be bagging.

nolaegghead said:

I used my engine hoist the other day and noticed it still had a patina of goat fat.  @20stone

I am proud of that cook, but less so of my (normally thorough) clean up effort.

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

FarmingPhD said:

Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories, this looks like a lot of fun.  You leave worn out but feeling accomplished.  The facility looks awesome along with the location.  Maybe add a hog hunt to the mix for wild boar sausage on the next round?

...They had 3 whitetails in the walk in when we got there that we were counting on but the cooler had been at 44 degrees for over a week. No Bueno. ...

By that, he means really, really no bueno.  I have to say, though, our host was very gracious when we basically said, "We're gonna make sausage, but not out of that" and spotted us the beef that filled in.  He came out okay, though, as his setup got stress tested, and he is now better prepared to do it again.  Miraculously, it appears that we are even welcome back at some point.

caliking said:

Foghorn said

And the fat off of a Mangalitsa mix pig is like butter.

Also, @caliking and @texaswig, as both of you were fans of the ProQ aka "trashcan smoker", I regret to inform you that it gave everything it had to provide us with breakfast bacon, a place to cook samples of our ground sausage for tastetesting before we put it in the casings, elk, bear, and award winning chicken wings throughout the weekend.  As @20stone likes to say "it was amortized".  The fire broke through the bottom of it on its last cook.  

NNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!  Say it ain’t so. RIP trash can cooker. You were loved by many. 

But it proved that the gloating  about the wings finally proved to be too much even for it.  

The final batch of wings was excellent!

YukonRon

@Foghorn

Drinking wine with My Beautiful Wife....told her about this little gathering in Texas.

She said we should go....you can start apologizing to everyone now....

Foghorn

@YukonRon, I'm spending the weekend on site with the ranch owner in a RV at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo BBQ Cookoff.  He and I are going to talk about "next steps"... while we're in the middle of 300 competition teams and all of their BBQ rigs.  We'll see what we come up with.  You won't scare him - he's met @The Cen-Tex Smoker and @20stone.  A co-worker of mine asked me about going in on a 1400 pound wagyu cow.  I mentioned this in front of both of them and the host - suggesting that we could get some great cuts and some great hamburger and sausage out of something like that if we could get it to the ranch.  Nobody flinched.  They just waited for someone to speak.  20stone finally spoke up and said "You don't even have to ask me.  You know I'm in."  The others didn't say anything to the negative. 

It's not often that you get to see a couple of people getting "Jonesed" in person, but I got to witness it.  I'm not sure that they even realize yet that it happened.  If this comes to fruition, I can even take credit for the assist.  Once again, we put Centex in the role of "brake man" - a role he had never dreamed of playing until he met 20stone.  I think his lack of comfort in the role contributes to his poor performance at it.

@caliking, I've ordered an 18" Weber Smokey Joe to replace the trashcan as my mobile cooker.  We'll see how it does.  

Yes, the final batch of wings was excellent - made even moreso because I didn't have to cook them.  My son has the technique down at this point so we broke him out to cook while we finished up the bagging, cleaning, organizing, and occasional celebratory beer drinking in the processing building.  

YukonRon

Let me know if you wish to add Kentucky etiquette to lower your standards by a lot, as this is totally a thing.

I (Suzy) might have to arrive early and make up Bourbon slushies. Or just bring vintages of bourbon y'all will never see.

Just like California wine, the best never leaves local.

I am in if you can put up with Åssholes.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Any time I am the brake man things have gone horribly awry. 

caliking

YukonRon said:

...

I am in if you can put up with Åssholes.

You're lucky that we've had plenty of practice (in no small part because of this forum ).

Come on down some time. @Foghorn could do with more help drinking his beer. 

caliking

@Foghorn - The 18" WSJ is a fine grill, and can be modded to approximate the trash can cooker. Its just missing the height and levels. Easy fix with the right sized tamale pot (or a 30gal drum cut down to size), nuts, bolts, and grates. 

I modded the smaller WSJ similarly some time ago. 

Foghorn

caliking said:

YukonRon said:

...

I am in if you can put up with Åssholes.

You're lucky that we've had plenty of practice (in no small part because of this forum ).

Come on down some time. @Foghorn could do with more help drinking his beer. 

I ran out of space in my fridge for large format Belgians a while back.  I vowed not to buy any more until I emptied out what I already have.  As a result of this event, that shelf is now empty.  I know how to remedy that.  

One of the advantages of large format Belgians is that they are great for sharing among friends - straight out of the bottle.  I'd be lying if I told you that each day this weekend we didn't have someone with clean hands make the occasional beer run (to the cooler 10 feet outside the food prep building) and come back in and pour some in everybody's mouth as they kept working on the sausage.  #efficiency #logistics #teamwork

We would start with the "daydrinking beers" (12 ounce bottles with low/standard alcohol content - e.g. Karbach's Love Street Blonde) around noon and work our way up to the "destination beers" (you had better be at your final destination when you start drinking them) (750 ml bottles of Belgian Tripel or Quad, typically 10-12% alcohol) after the sun set.  

However, I have to admit that Bourbon slushies might fit in well at an event like this... actually, who am I kidding, I can't think of an egghead event where Bourbon slushies wouldn't fit in.

YukonRon

Foghorn said:

caliking said:

YukonRon said:

...

I am in if you can put up with Åssholes.

You're lucky that we've had plenty of practice (in no small part because of this forum ).

Come on down some time. @Foghorn could do with more help drinking his beer. 

I ran out of space in my fridge for large format Belgians a while back.  I vowed not to buy any more until I emptied out what I already have.  As a result of this event, that shelf is now empty.  I know how to remedy that.  

One of the advantages of large format Belgians is that they are great for sharing among friends - straight out of the bottle.  I'd be lying if I told you that each day this weekend we didn't have someone with clean hands make the occasional beer run (to the cooler 10 feet outside the food prep building) and come back in and pour some in everybody's mouth as they kept working on the sausage.  #efficiency #logistics #teamwork

We would start with the "daydrinking beers" (12 ounce bottles with low/standard alcohol content - e.g. Karbach's Love Street Blonde) around noon and work our way up to the "destination beers" (you had better be at your final destination when you start drinking them) (750 ml bottles of Belgian Tripel or Quad, typically 10-12% alcohol) after the sun set.  

However, I have to admit that Bourbon slushies might fit in well at an event like this... actually, who am I kidding, I can't think of an egghead event where Bourbon slushies wouldn't fit in.

My Man.

Hell yeah!

Suzy shall be pleased. She will represent.

20stone

Foghorn said:

One of the advantages of large format Belgians is that they are great for sharing among friends - straight out of the bottle.  I'd be lying if I told you that each day this weekend we didn't have someone with clean hands make the occasional beer run (to the cooler 10 feet outside the food prep building) and come back in and pour some in everybody's mouth as they kept working on the sausage.  #efficiency #logistics #teamwork

We would start with the "daydrinking beers" (12 ounce bottles with low/standard alcohol content - e.g. Karbach's Love Street Blonde) around noon and work our way up to the "destination beers" (you had better be at your final destination when you start drinking them) (750 ml bottles of Belgian Tripel or Quad, typically 10-12% alcohol) after the sun set.  

 I don't often drink beer, but when I do, it's a @Foghorn sharebeer

saluki2007

I can always bring a bunch of midwest deer meat...

Foghorn

saluki2007 said:

I can always bring a bunch of midwest deer meat...

@saluki2007, that's a generous offer and is appreciated.  With that said, the goal of the ranch owner is to actually provide all the lean meat. particularly venison, that we need - and now that his walk-in cooler is set at 34 degrees we're hopeful that can happen going forward.

Foghorn

And the worst thing that may have come out of this fiasco is that @The Cen-Tex Smoker, discovered that "SplitWise" app.  We were each able to enter our expenses and then "settle up" with the push of one button if you have Venmo or PayPal.

So, now I'm in a group with him and @20stone where they can spend money and my share is 20% of whatever they buy.  

@YukonRon refers to buying an egg and joining this forum as "wallet genocide", but I think I may have just entered the "wallet napalm" or "wallet nuclear option" realm.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Foghorn said:

And the worst thing that may have come out of this fiasco is that @The Cen-Tex Smoker, discovered that "SplitWise" app.  We were each able to enter our expenses and then "settle up" with the push of one button if you have Venmo or PayPal.

So, now I'm in a group with him and @20stone where they can spend money and my share is 20% of whatever they buy.  

@YukonRon refers to buying an egg and joining this forum as "wallet genocide", but I think I may have just entered the "wallet napalm" or "wallet nuclear option" realm.

Being one click away from the business end of a @20stone hatched plan is a dangerous way to live.

Foghorn

So, the sausage saga continues. I arrived on site last evening at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo BBQ Cookoff. Our host from last weekend arranged for several of us to have an RV on site with some friends who compete. 

“Our” team is The Good Life BBQ.

https://www.goodlifebbq.com/

We’re sharing a site (6 sites actually) with world champion Joey Smith of Texas Chrome BBQ.

https://texaschromebbq.com/

He has probably the coolest looking smoker I’ve ever seen. Pics aren’t great because of tight quarters between the RVs.  

I served up some of our masala and merguez for several members of both teams last night and folks were uniformly impressed.  It made me wonder if taking our sausage for taste testing by some yahoos in NC was even worth doing at this point. @JohnInCarolina

Looking forward to a couple of good days of BBQ.

@20stone
@The Cen-Tex Smoker
@caliking

lkapigian

Foghorn said:

So, the sausage saga continues. I arrived on site last evening at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo BBQ Cookoff. Our host from last weekend arranged for several of us to have an RV on site with some friends who compete. 

“Our” team is The Good Life BBQ.

https://www.goodlifebbq.com/

We’re sharing a site (6 sites actually) with world champion Joey Smith of Texas Chrome BBQ.

https://texaschromebbq.com/

He has probably the coolest looking smoker I’ve ever seen. Pics aren’t great because of tight quarters between the RVs.  

I served up some of our masala and merguez for several members of both teams last night and folks were uniformly impressed.  It made me wonder if taking our sausage for taste testing by some yahoos in NC was even worth doing at this point. @JohnInCarolina

Looking forward to a couple of good days of BBQ.

@20stone
@The Cen-Tex Smoker
@caliking

Just Awesome @foghorn

northGAcock

If you bring it....they will come (and eat it). Cheers and good luck with the competition. 

Disclaimer.....I am from SC myself....so I get your NC yahoo questioning. 

SciAggie

@Foghorn That is way cool. Have fun. 

caliking

Nice looks like you’re in for another rollicking weekend @Foghorn. No rest for the weary. 

Foghorn

Joey Smith’s “practice” ribeye. $55/pound wagyu from Bolner’s Meat Market. 

Tastes like money.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Foghorn said:

Joey Smith’s “practice” ribeye. $55/pound wagyu from Bolner’s Meat Market. 

Tastes like money.

Turns out that wagyu makes excellent sausage as well. Having our Texas beef/jalapeño for lunch as I write this. I wish we made more. Wow. 

Foghorn

Pork al pastor cooker.  Have to tend 3 fires. 

Foghorn

And it sounds like we’ll need more wagyu briskets the next time we get together.